Ethics and precepts are part of the very existence of man.Societies are bounded by legal structures which controls the movement and behaviour of people.Generally,ethics or code of conduct forms an integral part of man's life.However there are two notions on the idea of a society bounded by ethics and the possibility of survival of its citizenry.Some school of thought opines that people would survive where there are sets of legal frameworks which binds the individual to act in a certain way,others also refute this claim and believe that man is capable of surviving in an ethics -free world.
Arguing on both sides I think people would survive in a society where there are no ethics by dint of the following reasons.
Naturally the human mind is disposed in such a way that it can decipher the good from the bad.Humans have an innate capacity or ability to do the right things without necessarily having a constructive legal framework to guide or back them.
Ethics or code of conduct sometimes hinder man from doing certain things which will be beneficial to society though the law seems to close an eye on them.Leaving in an ethics free society would help man to do things freely which will not be at the detriment of societal development.As humans we sometimes need freedom to act within our own confines.
Not withstanding the fact that people can survive in such a society,others believe that there are some negative outcomes when one lives in a society not bounded by ethics.
Anarchy is said to be on the rise at places where people feel they are not bounded by a set of rules.People will begin to act in ways which will tend to affect the lives of others.For instance someone might just wake up one day,pick a gun and shoot another.In such cases,the offender will go scort free for engaging in such an act.Anarchy breaks society and as such without ethics survival in a society would be difficult.
Though an ethics-free society is possible it is always good and healthy to have a society guided by some code of ethics to mitigate the rate at which people do bad things in society.